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George Siopsis

Publications and source records attributed to George Siopsis.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Encoding Compact U(1) Gauge Fields in Bosonic Modes with GKP Stabilization

Compact lattice gauge theories are formulated in terms of angular variables and integer electric fluxes, while bosonic quantum hardware provides oscillator modes with continuous, unbounded quadratures. We bridge this gap with a one-to-one encoding. After Gauss's law is solved, each remaining gauge degree of freedom is carried by a single oscillator mode, with its interactions built from trigonometric gates, and a Gottesman--Kitaev--Preskill (GKP)-type stabilizer provides the compactness that the hardware does not. The encoding becomes exact in the limit of infinite squeezing, and at finite squeezing, the leading imperfections act as small, computable shifts of physical observables rather than uncontrolled leakage. We apply the construction to compact QED$_3$ and derive the error budget at finite squeezing, characterizing the leading errors in closed form, and showing that they can be corrected, subtracted, or extrapolated away. We construct syndrome-extraction protocols that detect and remove the displacement component of photon loss, delimit the noise it does not reach, compare two choices of dynamical variables, and collect the scaling of mode count, gate count, and measurement cost. A one-plaquette example reproduces the exact compact-rotor dynamics, and real-time spectroscopy with controlled extrapolations recovers the exponentially small energy splitting between charge sectors, the seed of the monopole physics of the theory, at the percent level against its exact value.

quant-ph

DQAOA-GPT: AI-Accelerated Distributed Quantum Optimization for Combinatorial Problems

While combinatorial optimization problems are central to many scientific and engineering applications, their solution remains challenging due to exponentially large search spaces. Variational quantum algorithms offer a promising route for tackling such problems, yet their practical performance is limited by repeated quantum circuit evaluations and classical parameter updates. In this work, we introduce DQAOA-GPT, a hybrid framework that integrates the distributed quantum approximate optimization algorithm (DQAOA), which decomposes a large optimization problem into smaller sub-problems, with GPT-based quantum circuit generation for solving those sub-problems. Rather than relying on iterative variational optimization, the proposed approach uses a trained generative model to directly generate high-quality quantum circuits for the decomposed sub-problems. As a benchmark, we evaluate DQAOA-GPT against conventional DQAOA on dense HUBO optimization problems with up to 100 decision variables. The results demonstrate that DQAOA-GPT significantly reduces computational cost while maintaining competitive solution quality, with larger acceleration observed for larger sub-problem sizes. Although this work focuses on benchmark-scale validation, the framework provides a promising foundation for larger-scale combinatorial optimization in hybrid HPC-QC environments through increased GPU resources and parallel computing capability.

quant-ph

Trigonometric Continuous-Variable Quantum Gates: Realization with Trapped Ions and Nonperturbative Wigner Negativity

We experimentally realize trigonometric continuous-variable gates on a trapped-ion processor, for which a motional mode acquires a phase proportional to the cosine of its position quadrature, and, for the first time, implement the two-mode generalization, coupling two modes through a single nonlinear phase. Such gates provide an experimentally accessible, nonpolynomial primitive for periodic interactions acting on both compact and noncompact degrees of freedom, including rotor models, sine-Gordon-type systems, and lattice gauge theories. Scanning gate strength, spatial frequency, and circuit depth, we resolve via blue-sideband spectroscopy the parity selection rule that fingerprints the exact cosine evolution, and find that an open-system model incorporating residual thermal occupation and motional dephasing reproduces the data. We then derive the asymptotics of the Wigner negativity generated by these gates and find three scaling regimes. The negativity is beyond all algebraic orders in the gate strength while the negative regions sit in far phase-space tails, becomes linear once they reach the bulk, where it saturates a first-order bound we establish, and logarithmic at strong gate strength. These results expose a general mechanism, first identified here through the cosine gate, by which every finite-order perturbative estimate of a non-Gaussian resource can vanish even though the resource itself remains nonzero. Together, our results establish trigonometric gates as controllable, experimentally realizable building blocks for bosonic quantum simulation, expanding the class of nonlinear dynamics accessible to continuous-variable quantum processors.

quant-ph

Graduate Training in Quantum Information Science and Engineering: Lessons, Challenges, and a Roadmap from the NSF Research Traineeship Programs

Since 2019, eighteen NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) awards in quantum information science and engineering (QISE) and adjacent fields have been funded, constituting the largest NSF-coordinated investment in graduate QISE training in the United States. Synthesizing lessons from our programs, we work through the central tensions that every QISE graduate program must negotiate: between depth in a home discipline and breadth across the field, between structured instruction and open-ended experiential and hands-on learning, and between training individual specialists and cultivating teams that collectively cover all areas of QISE. We describe the structural and pedagogical innovations the NRT programs have developed in response, assess what is working and what remains unresolved, and sketch 12 open problems the community will need to address as QISE graduate education scales beyond the well-resourced research universities where it has up till now been mainly concentrated. Eight concrete recommendations follow: (1) adopt the startup model of team-based training as an organizing philosophy; (2) invest immediately in sensing and communication curriculum development; (3) build student agency into program governance, not just activities; (4) establish structural mechanisms for industrial engagement rather than depending on goodwill; (5) design for sustainability from year one; (6) develop graduate-level textbooks spanning all three QISE pillars: computing, sensing, and communications; (7) establish shared outcome assessment instruments across programs; and (8) develop structured mechanisms for faculty professional development in QISE.

physics.ed-ph

High-flux sub-Poissonian twin fields generation from warm atomic vapor

We demonstrate the generation of sub-Poissonian twin fields via near-degenerate spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) in warm $^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$ vapor at 795~nm. When seeded with a weak coherent field, the generated twin beams exhibit approximately $5.5~\mathrm{dB}$ of intensity-difference squeezing in free space and retain about $3~\mathrm{dB}$ after coupling into polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers. Under vacuum seeding, time-resolved photon-counting measurements yield Mandel parameters of $Q\approx-0.7$ for each individual field, demonstrating strong photon-number squeezing. To explain these observations, we develop a finite-resource saturation model in which occupation-dependent SFWM gain, arising from competition for a finite nonlinear gain resource, suppresses large photon-number fluctuations within an effective collective mode selected by the PM-fiber spatial projection, thereby producing the observed negative Mandel-$Q$ parameters. The temporal cross-correlation between the twin photons exhibits a distinctive flat-topped profile resulting from the interplay of multiple $\chi^{(3)}$ processes in the atomic medium and is in excellent agreement with the theoretical model. Combining high photon flux, near-resonant operation, robust sub-Poissonian photon statistics, and fiber compatibility, this source provides a promising platform for scalable quantum-enhanced sensing and quantum information processing.

quant-ph

Trigonometric continuous-variable gates and hybrid quantum simulations of the sine-Gordon model

Hybrid qubit-qumode quantum computing platforms provide a natural setting for simulating interacting bosonic quantum field theories. However, existing continuous-variable gate constructions rely predominantly on polynomial functions of canonical quadratures. In this work, we introduce a complementary universality paradigm based on trigonometric continuous-variable gates, which enable a Fourier-like representation of bosonic operators and are particularly well suited for periodic and non-perturbative interactions. We present a deterministic ancilla-based method for implementing unitary and non-unitary trigonometric gates whose arguments are arbitrary Hermitian functions of qumode quadratures. As a concrete application, we develop a hybrid qubit-qumode quantum simulation of the lattice sine-Gordon model. Using these gates, we prepare ground states via quantum imaginary-time evolution, simulate real-time dynamics, compute time-dependent vertex two-point correlation functions, and extract quantum kink profiles under topological boundary conditions. Our results demonstrate that trigonometric continuous-variable gates provide a physically natural framework for simulating interacting field theories on near-term hybrid quantum hardware, while establishing a parallel route to universality beyond polynomial gate constructions. We expect that the trigonometric gates introduced here to find broader applications, including quantum simulations of condensed matter systems, quantum chemistry, and biological models.

quant-ph

Simulating quantum electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions with qubits and qumodes

We develop a hybrid qubit-qumode framework for simulating quantum electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions. In this approach, fermionic matter fields are represented by qubits, while U(1) gauge fields are encoded in continuous-variable bosonic modes whose canonical quadratures capture the electric and vector-potential components of the theory. To reconcile the non-compact phase space of the qumodes with the compact U(1) gauge symmetry, we introduce and compare two complementary constraint-enforcement strategies: (i) a squeezing-based projection that confines qumode states to the unit circle through an effective modification of the inner product, and (ii) a method that dynamically enforces compactness via a penalty Hamiltonian term. We construct the corresponding hybrid Hamiltonian, derive its decomposition into experimentally accessible qubit-qumode gates, and analyze its spectrum in the analytically tractable single-plaquette limit. The hybrid formulation reproduces the correct gauge-invariant dynamics and provides a scalable route toward simulating Abelian lattice gauge theories coupled to fermionic matter on near-term hybrid quantum architectures. Ground-state preparation and convergence are demonstrated using a continuous-variable extension of the Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution (QITE) algorithm, establishing a general framework for hybrid discrete-continuous quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories.

quant-ph

Extending QAOA-GPT to Higher-Order Quantum Optimization Problems

The recently proposed QAOA-GPT framework demonstrated that generative pre-trained transformers can learn mappings between problem graphs and optimized quantum circuits for the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA). In this work, we extend QAOA-GPT to Higher-Order Unconstrained Binary Optimization (HUBO) problems, focusing on spin-glass Hamiltonians that include cubic interaction terms. Using FEATHER graph embeddings to encode topological information, we train the model on graph-circuit pairs generated via ADAPT-QAOA and evaluate its performance on 8- and 16-qubit instances embedded on heavy-hex lattices. The generative model produces adaptive QAOA-like circuits and corresponding variational parameters in a single forward pass, bypassing the iterative classical optimization loop. The generated circuits achieve average approximation ratios exceeding 0.95, closely matching classically optimized ADAPT-QAOA results, while maintaining consistent parameter distributions across circuit depths. These results demonstrate that QAOA-GPT generalizes effectively to higher-order cost Hamiltonians and complex energy landscapes, establishing generative modeling as a scalable pathway toward autonomous variational circuit design and quantum algorithm discovery in the NISQ era.

quant-ph

Practical Quantum Clock Synchronization Using Weak Coherent Pulses

Establishing and maintaining a common time reference across spatially separated devices is a prerequisite for networked quantum experiments and secure communications. Classical two-way timing protocols such as Network Time Protocol (NTP) or Precision Time Protocol (PTP) are vulnerable to asymmetric channel delays and cannot provide the picosecond-level precision demanded by quantum repeater networks. We propose and numerically evaluate a quantum-enhanced clock synchronization protocol based on attenuated weak coherent pulses (WCPs) and bidirectional Hong--Ou--Mandel (HOM) interferometry. Our simulations assume telecom-band photons ($1550\,\mathrm{nm}$) with a temporal width of $10.0\,\mathrm{ns}$, a repetition rate of $f = 10\,\mathrm{MHz}$, effective mean photon number $μ= 1.0$, detector efficiency $η= 85\%$, detector timing jitter of $150\,\mathrm{ps}$, and channel loss of $0.2\,\mathrm{dB/km}$. We simulate that sub-nanosecond clock-offset accuracy and precision can be achieved under these operating conditions. This work demonstrates that high-repetition-rate WCPs combined with HOM interference can provide flexible and secure quantum clock synchronization at sub-nanosecond precision.

quant-ph

Reconfigurable Four-Photon Interference among Three Nodes on a Field Deployed Metropolitan Fiber Network

Advanced quantum networking protocols beyond bi-photon, point-to-point links rely critically on the ability to perform multi-photon interference across multiple nodes under realistic operating conditions. Yet experimental validation of such higher-order, multi-node interference effects in deployed metropolitan fiber networks remains limited. Here, we report a field demonstration of polarization-controlled reconfigurable four-photon interference over three distant nodes on a deployed metropolitan fiber network. Using a fully fiber-coupled linear-optical platform, we observe a fusion-type four-photon interference signature in presence of real-world impairments, including photon loss, polarization drift, and timing uncertainty. By performing polarization-resolved measurements on two locally retained photons, we conditionally select distinct two-photon coincidence channels that exhibit Bell-like and N00N-like behavior. Rather than pursuing multi-partite entanglement verification, this work focuses on establishing the technical feasibility of multi-photon, multi-node interference and reconfigurable conditional state preparation in the field in a deployed fiber network environment. These results serve as a systems-level validation toward future multi-photon, multi-node quantum networking architectures that require robust interference performance outside the laboratory.

quant-ph

Post-Variational Ground State Estimation via QPE-Based Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution

Quantum phase estimation (QPE) plays a pivotal role in many quantum algorithms, offering provable speedups in applications such as Shor's factoring algorithm. While fault-tolerant quantum algorithms for combinatorial and Hamiltonian optimization often integrate QPE with variational protocols-like the quantum approximate optimization Ansatz or variational quantum eigensolver-these approaches typically rely on heuristic techniques requiring parameter optimization. In this work, we present the QPE-based quantum imaginary time evolution (QPE-QITE) algorithm, designed for post-variational ground state estimation on fault-tolerant quantum computers. Unlike variational methods, QPE-QITE employs additional ancillae to project the quantum register into low-energy eigenstates, eliminating the need for parameter optimization. We demonstrate the capabilities of QPE-QITE by applying it to the low-autocorrelation binary sequences (LABS) problem, which is a higher order optimization problem that has been studied in the context of quantum scaling advantage. Scaling estimates for magic state requirements are provided to assess the feasibility of addressing these problems on near-term fault-tolerant devices, establishing a benchmark for quantum advantage. Moreover, we discuss potential implementations of QPE-QITE on existing quantum hardware as a precursor to fault tolerance.

quant-ph

Efficient Quantum Chemistry Calculations on Noisy Quantum Hardware

We present a hardware-efficient optimization scheme for quantum chemistry calculations, utilizing the Sampled Quantum Diagonalization (SQD) method. Our algorithm, optimized SQD (SQDOpt), combines the classical Davidson method technique with added multi-basis measurements to optimize a quantum Ansatz on hardware using a fixed number of measurements per optimization step. This addresses the key challenge associated with other quantum chemistry optimization protocols, namely Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE), which must measure in hundreds to thousands of bases to estimate energy on hardware, even for molecules with less than 20 qubits. Numerical results for various molecules, including hydrogen chains, water, and methane, demonstrate the efficacy of our method compared to classical and quantum variational approaches, and we confirm the performance on the IBM-Cleveland quantum hardware, where we find instances where SQDOpt either matches or exceeds the solution quality of noiseless VQE. A runtime scaling indicates that SQDOpt on quantum hardware is competitive with classical state-of-the-art methods, with a crossover point of 1.5 seconds/iteration for the SQDOpt on quantum hardware and classically simulated VQE with the 20-qubit H$_{12}$ molecule. Our findings suggest that the proposed SQDOpt framework offers a scalable and robust pathway for quantum chemistry simulations on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices.

quant-ph

Stochastic Security as a Performance Metric for Quantum-enhanced Generative AI

Motivated by applications of quantum computers in Gibbs sampling from continuous real-valued functions, we ask whether such algorithms can provide practical advantages for machine learning models trained on classical data and seek measures for quantifying such impacts. In this study, we focus on deep energy-based models (EBM), as they require continuous-domain Gibbs sampling both during training and inference. In lieu of fault-tolerant quantum computers that can execute quantum Gibbs sampling algorithms, we use the Monte Carlo simulation of diffusion processes as a classical alternative. More specifically, we investigate whether long-run persistent chain Monte Carlo simulation of Langevin dynamics improves the quality of the representations achieved by EBMs. We consider a scheme in which the Monte Carlo simulation of a diffusion, whose drift is given by the gradient of the energy function, is used to improve the adversarial robustness and calibration score of an independent classifier network. Our results show that increasing the computational budget of Gibbs sampling in persistent contrastive divergence improves both the calibration and adversarial robustness of the model, suggesting a prospective avenue of quantum advantage for generative AI using future large-scale quantum computers.

cs.LG

Mode Distinguishability in Multi-photon Interference

The Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect is a quintessential process in various quantum information technologies and quantum optics applications. In this work, we investigate multi-photon interference, developing a model for the simultaneous characterization of polarization and spectro-temporal mode mismatch on the coincidence probabilities including the effects of realistic imperfections of devices used in HOM experiments. We also study the coincidence probability for coherent states as a function of source intensity, as well as spectro-temporal and polarization mismatch of the incident beams. We apply our model to the case of multi-photon interference from independent sources and analyze the consequences of mode mismatch in various instances that occur in quantum networking including entanglement swapping, quantum key distribution, quantum sensing, quantum optical classification, and photonic quantum computing.

quant-ph

Efficient Simulation of Open Quantum Systems on NISQ Trapped-Ion Hardware

Simulating open quantum systems, which interact with external environments, presents significant challenges on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices due to limited qubit resources and noise. In this paper, we propose an efficient framework for simulating open quantum systems on NISQ hardware by leveraging a time-perturbative Kraus operator representation of the system's dynamics. Our approach avoids the computationally expensive Trotterization method and exploits the Lindblad master equation to represent time evolution in a compact form, particularly for systems satisfying specific commutation relations. We demonstrate the efficiency of our method by simulating quantum channels, such as the continuous-time Pauli channel and damped harmonic oscillators, on NISQ trapped-ion hardware, including IonQ Harmony and Quantinuum H1-1. Additionally, we introduce hardware-agnostic error mitigation techniques, including Pauli channel fitting and quantum depolarizing channel inversion, to enhance the fidelity of quantum simulations. Our results show strong agreement between the simulations on real quantum hardware and exact solutions, highlighting the potential of Kraus-based methods for scalable and accurate simulation of open quantum systems on NISQ devices. This framework opens pathways for simulating more complex systems under realistic conditions in the near term.

quant-ph

Quantum computation of SU(2) lattice gauge theory with continuous variables

We present a quantum computational framework for SU(2) lattice gauge theory, leveraging continuous variables instead of discrete qubits to represent the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space of the gauge fields. We consider a ladder as well as a two-dimensional grid of plaquettes, detailing the use of gauge fixing to reduce the degrees of freedom and simplify the Hamiltonian. We demonstrate how the system dynamics, ground states, and energy gaps can be computed using the continuous-variable approach to quantum computing. Our results indicate that it is feasible to study non-Abelian gauge theories with continuous variables, providing new avenues for understanding the real-time dynamics of quantum field theories.

hep-lat

Simulating Neutron Scattering on an Analog Quantum Processor

Neutron scattering characterization of materials allows for the study of entanglement and microscopic structure, but is inefficient to simulate classically for comparison to theoretical models and predictions. However, quantum processors, notably analog quantum simulators, have the potential to offer an unprecedented, efficient method of Hamiltonian simulation by evolving a state in real time to compute phase transitions, dynamical properties, and entanglement witnesses. Here, we present a method for simulating neutron scattering on QuEra's Aquila processor by measuring the dynamic structure factor (DSF) for the prototypical example of the critical transverse field Ising chain, and propose a method for error mitigation. We provide numerical simulations and experimental results for the performance of the procedure on the hardware, up to a chain of length $L=25$. Additionally, the DSF result is used to compute the quantum Fisher information (QFI) density, where we confirm bipartite entanglement in the system experimentally.

quant-ph